Competition 73

[Nick]

Competition 73 is now available from the competition page; it is an Angband 3.1.1 Half-Troll Priest. Note that comp 72 still has a few days to run.

[PowerDiver]

Competition 73 is now available from the competition page; it is an Angband 3.1.1 Half-Troll Priest. Note that comp 72 still has a few days to run.

IMO 3.1.1 won't ready until the "pushes past" problem is fixed for chars with ESP. You should wait until there is a new version on the front of rephial before having a comp.

I was considering submitting something, but held off because IMO it is still too early for 3.1.1.

[Nick]

IMO 3.1.1 won't ready until the "pushes past" problem is fixed for chars with ESP. You should wait until there is a new version on the front of rephial before having a comp.

Too late - the die is cast now. The only solution is to whinge. In fact, I only used 3.1.1 for the comp so that something would get done about "pushes past" problem.

[Rizwan]

I just started playing the comp character and noticed that I cannot choose which spells to learn. I get a message "you can learn 1 more spell", I select the first book and presto I have learnt a random spell. Not having played priests before I was just wondering if that was normal behavior or a bug?

[Sirridan]

I just started playing the comp character and noticed that I cannot choose which spells to learn. I get a message "you can learn 1 more spell", I select the first book and presto I have learnt a random spell. Not having played priests before I was just wondering if that was normal behavior or a bug?

This is how priests work, to learn specific spells with a lower wisdom score, its good to save some up then learn from the book your spell is in in hopes you get the one you want.

[Nick]

OK, the competition page now recommends using build 1626 (which has the "pushes past" messages fixed), and links to the windows and mac nightlies. Linux users should be able to get r1626 through svn.

EDIT: Build 1626 is now on the main page at rephial.org

[PowerDiver]

OK, the competition page now recommends using build 1626 (which has the "pushes past" messages fixed), and links to the windows and mac nightlies. Linux users should be able to get r1626 through svn.

EDIT: Build 1626 is now on the main page at rephial.org

Note to all -- if you get find traps, detect doors/stairs is redundant since find traps now does that to.


NEVER MIND

Someday I have to figure out why configure doesn't work on my linux machine.

[Sergio]

I was working on competing, but level 47 at DL99 with 760,000 turns? I'll just go back to my realistic expectations

[Nick]

I was working on competing, but level 47 at DL99 with 760,000 turns? I'll just go back to my realistic expectations

It's for the fun, not the glory

On the other hand, maybe we should make a hit list of players who are not allowed to start until the comp is half over. I'd start with

• evariste
• Psi
• Cave Man
• drchung
• PowerDiver

Who's with me? The time of the mediocre is at hand.

[Sergio]

Or just multiply their turns by 100 on upload so we feel like we're doing awesome

I'm not a fan of half-orcs or half-drool, er, trolls, so it's a good excuse to go back to my paladin

[buzzkill]

Hey, I just took over 2nd place, and I'll forever have the screen shot to prove it. The key is to start early and have your moment in the sun before everyone else ruins your fun.

[nekrotyrael]

It's for the fun, not the glory

On the other hand, maybe we should make a hit list of players who are not allowed to start until the comp is half over. I'd start with

• evariste
• Psi
• Cave Man
• drchung
• PowerDiver

Who's with me? The time of the mediocre is at hand.

What about time of the bad? :]

[buzzkill]

Vanilla R1626. Don't know for sure if this has been reported yet, but I don't think so. Item(s) left in your home for a period of time ID themselves. I had no ID and an un-ID'd staff that I couldn't activate. I figured it must be something good, so I left it in my home while I went on my next dive. When I returned, still with no ID, I entered my home and found a previously un-ID'd staff of *destruction*.

[Pete Mack]

@buzzkill -- what's with the "Socialism in America?"

Frankly, after a long bout with unemployment due to Addison's disease misdiagnosed as depression, I am all for partially socialized health care.

It's one thing to have no "safety net" when land was free for the stealing, and no health care at all was your best option. "Immediate necessity growing into oppression" is a much tougher sell today.

[zaimoni]

@buzzkill -- what's with the "Socialism in America?"

The U.S. government always seems to find the worst possible implementation of socialized anything when it gets considered. (Hyperbole, yes. But the last serious attempt at health care reform, under Nixon, did exactly what it was designed to do per the Nixon tapes: reduce costs by denying treatment. Not a good thing to be broadcasting (in Michael Moore's movie Sicko) right when the current health care reform bill changes look a lot like Nixon's.

Frankly, after a long bout with unemployment due to Addison's disease misdiagnosed as depression, I am all for partially socialized health care.

Which is dead in the U.S. Senate on arrival. Thus, the scheduled reconciliation on Sept. 2009 to find a bill that can pass both the House and Senate.

I would be fine with an implementation that covers exactly what's uninsurable currently: pre-existing conditions and long-term disabilities. Making parastatal health insurance (Medicare) for disability care on by default, rather than 2 years into the disability, would also be an obvious improvement. If they can add anything else without risking medical price hyperinflation, great.

If those two key provisions are anywhere in the four bills to be reconciled, they're not getting media publicity. Reading 300 pages out of 2,500+ isn't really enough to say anything authoritative.

What I don't want, is something with Medicare's actual acceptance rate in Maryland among doctors in 2005 (20%), that materially reduces what access to healthcare the currently uninsured (such as me) have. The latter point, is pretty much what all four proposals scheduled to be reconciled in Sept. 2009 will do.

It's one thing to have no "safety net" when land was free for the stealing, and no health care at all was your best option. "Immediate necessity growing into oppression" is a much tougher sell today.

Well, the immediate necessity is certainly there. Certainly something needs to be done to keep Medicare/Medicaid off the annual Congressional funding treadmill ~2012 onwards. And we do have a reasonable public outcry, justifiably: the EMT stabilization law from the 1960's isn't enough.

But, rather than even partially fix things, what's actually being considered (pre-compromise) will unintentionally shaft me. And would shaft you, if you were in the U.S.

Just because virtually every other first world Western nation has socialized health care, doesn't mean the U.S. can make it work.